Wednesday, September 27, 2000
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Wednesday, September 27, 2000 |
| Tyrone holding out
against impact fees
By JOHN THOMPSON The impasse over impact fees remains and Tyrone leaders are not saying when the matter will be discussed again. Last Thursday, the Town Council refused to pass a motion in support of the fees to build a new jail and expand fire services. Councilman Paul Letourneau made a motion to approve the fees, but it died due to lack of a second. The councilman made the motion after a lengthy discussion by County Attorney Dennis Davenport explaining the rationale behind some of the parts of the impact fee ordinance. Tyrone's problem for more than a month has been the lack of a smaller business category in the fee structure. There are only two categories currently: stores with more than 50,000 square feet and those with less than 50,000. The council argued that a category should be established for businesses under 10,000 square feet. "We won't have a building larger than 30,000 square feet," said Letourneau. But Davenport explained the current document was a result of many modification requests from municipalities that the county tried to include. "I just don't feel I have justification for another category," he said. Since retail stores typically have a higher impact on the jail population than industrial facilities, Davenport said, adding another category would still cause the smaller businesses to pay $4,300 for the jail portion of the impact fee, while large businesses would then pay more than $13,000. "These mom-and-pop stores are not going to have the same crime level as the Fayette Pavilion," said Councilman Ronnie Cannon. Without Tyrone approving the impact fees, the county cannot implement the fee as currently authorized by the County Commission. Commissioners voted to impose the fees only if all local cities participate. A bond has already been passed to pay for the jail, but county officials want the cost of the jail spread around to some of the new residents who will be affecting the county's infrastructure.
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